Strongest land animal that a human could kill unarmed

Let's say you take a man in good physical condition. He's no Olympic athlete but he's in pretty good shape, pretty strong and fast as humans go. He has some experience in martial arts, he knows what he's doing when it comes to wrestling, boxing and things like that but he's no champion or anything. He has no weapons, no armour more protective than just the every day clothes on his back.

What is the strongest land animal that this human could kill in a fight? Of both herbivores and carnivores, what is the biggest, meanest, most physically powerful animal that a human stands a good chance of killing in a face to face fight unarmed?

Simply picking up a rock in one hand to use as a bludgen effectively puts humans near the top of the food chain. There are few things that can't be crippled/killed with a well timed blow to the head with a stone

Fighting with weapons is so inbuilt into humans, why else do you think children who have never seen any depictions of combat ever will still pick up sticks and duel with them as spears/swords or have wars throwing rocks/dirt at each other. Its natural human instinct to use the materials available in the environment to augment our physical atributes.

Even bare soil can be used as a weapon thown into eyes

Its rather important what the terrain, location, surface material is for this fight. It determines what might be onhand for a human to gain the advantage

Simply picking up a rock in one hand to use as a bludgen effectively puts humans near the top of the food chain. There are few things that can't be crippled/killed with a well timed blow to the head with a stone

Fighting with weapons is so inbuilt into humans, why else do you think children who have never seen any depictions of combat ever will still pick up sticks and duel with them as spears/swords or have wars throwing rocks/dirt at each other. Its natural huaman instinct to use the mateials available in the environment to augment our physical atributes.

Even bare soil can be used as a weapon thown into eyes

Its rather important what the terrain, location, surface material is for this fight. It determines what might be onhand for a human to gain the advantage

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This. We are here because evolution forced us to become tactical geniuses for nature's purpose. Even a untrained unarmed human if given something we can use as a club will instinctively decide the club over fists.

The unarmed part lasts as long as we don't find a sufficiently hard stick or a large enough rock. Human style of fighting is find a way to skirt the current rules and cheat while still being within the rules. We have grown mighty effective at it. If the person knows how to make a spear? Theoretically no living animal alive is unkillable. Heck, all we have to do to kill some animals is just run after them long enough that it dies from exhaustion.

I've saw once in a book about big game hunting that a leopard that was careless can be killed by a very strong man. Apparently leopards have relatively fragile ribcages compared to other predators of similar size and if the leopard was in a face-to-face fight then it messed up, as they are normally the stealthiest of the big cats. I'm still not sure if I'd give the man "good chances" though.

At the very least this man should be able to kill a cheetah more than 5 times out of 10. A cheetah has to suffocate even the <40 kg gazelles that it catches since it isn't strong enough to break their necks.

This does state that the cat was already injured, but we don't know how badly. But since were talking about a 73 year old man thats some pretty good humaning.

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There was another story brought up a while back which entailed a father breaking the neck of a buck. Mind, supposedly the thing had recently dashed through a glass door and the father was on adrenaline something awful (the buck had crashed into their daughter's room).

I've saw once in a book about big game hunting that a leopard that was careless can be killed by a very strong man. Apparently leopards have relatively fragile ribcages compared to other predators of similar size and if the leopard was in a face-to-face fight then it messed up, as they are normally the stealthiest of the big cats. I'm still not sure if I'd give the man "good chances" though.

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Leopard can easily rip you to shreds, though. If you lose control of it for a second, you're going to learn why even large dogs respect house cats...

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Aligators/crocs are doable, even more easily than many smaller and squishier animals. Exhaust it and it will collapse from stress.

Nature deliberately made us physically weak, but with a great brain, in order to force us to develop technology... Indeed: "Necessity is the mother of invention" The Earth Spirit wants us teched-up for when the Tyranids come to pay a visit. We will be the planet's antibodies.

Now on topic: I heard of a guy once in Africa killing a Lion with his bare hands. I don't know if that were true. If it was then there must have been some advantageous circumstances for the Human; the Lion was already wounded, exhausted or something.

Nature deliberately made us physically weak, but with a great brain, in order to force us to develop technology... Indeed: "Necessity is the mother of invention" The Earth Spirit wants us teched-up for when the Tyranids come to pay a visit. We will be the planet's antibodies.

Now on topic: I heard of a guy once in Africa killing a Lion with his bare hands. I don't know if that were true. If it was then there must have been some advantageous circumstances for the Human; the Lion was already wounded, exhausted or something.

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Hmm, she might have overdesigned us, then, as the antibodies seem to be doing as much damage to the 'earth spirit' as any disease

Unarmed against animal, though? A lot of fights could go either way pretty reliably. A big dog can kill a man pretty easily, and a man, if he controls the situation properly, can do much the same. I doubt a person can reliably kill any bear, the mass difference is just too high.

Hmm, she might have overdesigned us, then, as the antibodies seem to be doing as much damage to the 'earth spirit' as any disease

Unarmed against animal, though? A lot of fights could go either way pretty reliably. A big dog can kill a man pretty easily, and a man, if he controls the situation properly, can do much the same. I doubt a person can reliably kill any bear, the mass difference is just too high.

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Yes, sadly the antibodies have mutated into a cancer.

I take your point about circumstances playing a huge part in any human vs animal fight, and you're right too about a bear; there is NO way a human being could ever kill a bear with his bare (childish lol) hands. A bear can end a lion's life with one punch, imagine what it could do to a human skull. Eeek!

Now on topic: I heard of a guy once in Africa killing a Lion with his bare hands. I don't know if that were true. If it was then there must have been some advantageous circumstances for the Human; the Lion was already wounded, exhausted or something.

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Moses Lekalau, a Samburu herdsman in Kenya. Though technically he wasn't unarmed; he used a spear and a club. Then, exhausted, he was killed by hyenas immediately afterward.

Nature deliberately made us physically weak, but with a great brain, in order to force us to develop technology... Indeed: "Necessity is the mother of invention" The Earth Spirit wants us teched-up for when the Tyranids come to pay a visit. We will be the planet's antibodies.

Now on topic: I heard of a guy once in Africa killing a Lion with his bare hands. I don't know if that were true. If it was then there must have been some advantageous circumstances for the Human; the Lion was already wounded, exhausted or something.

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As to animals, I'd say a man could defeat a bull? Less seriously, since I don't think time scale was mentioned, the man could get his hands on a elephant calf and raise it to adulthood, then easily defeat the unsuspecting and docile beast.

Simply picking up a rock in one hand to use as a bludgen effectively puts humans near the top of the food chain. There are few things that can't be crippled/killed with a well timed blow to the head with a stone

Fighting with weapons is so inbuilt into humans, why else do you think children who have never seen any depictions of combat ever will still pick up sticks and duel with them as spears/swords or have wars throwing rocks/dirt at each other. Its natural huaman instinct to use the materials available in the environment to augment our physical atributes.

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Yes. Humans have been using weapons literally since before we were human. When you get right down to it, if you want to pit a human in our "natural state" against another animal the human should have a spear, not bare hands. An unarmed human in a fight to the death is like a wolf without teeth - we've been deprived of the defense we've evolved to use.